Advancements in communication technologies have permitted significant improvements, both in performance and cost, in the communication of data between a sending and a receiving station. Advancements in the field of radio communications, for instance, have permitted the introduction of, and wide usage of, both improved and new types of radio communication systems.
Digital communication techniques, for example, have been implemented in various radio communication systems. Such implementations have permitted, at times, multi-fold increases in the communication capacities of such communication systems. Cellular communication systems are exemplary of radio communication systems in which digital communication techniques have been widely implemented. When a digital communication technique is utilized, for instance, a single carrier can be used to form more than one channel. The communication capacity of a cellular communication system in which a digital communication technique is implemented typically permits, thereby, a several-fold increase in the communication capacity of the system.
Advancements in communication technologies have also facilitated decentralization of computer systems. Increasingly, computer systems are formed of decentralized, processing devices, distributed at separate locations and connected together by network connections. IP (intelligent peripheral) networks, such as the Internet, are formed of such network-connected, distributed, processing devices. Sending and receiving stations, sometimes referred to as "host devices" or "hosts", transmit and receive packets of data when a packet channel, forming a communication channel therebetween, is available to communicate the packets. The packet channel is shared amongst many users and is used to transmit a particular packet of data when the channel becomes available to do so. Communication of packets of data between the distributed, processing devices permit communication of information between such distributed devices in a cost-efficient manner upon a shared, packet channel.
Merging of technologies have permitted the implementation of radio communication systems in which an IP host device is coupled by way of a radio link to permit Internet, or other packet data, communications with a host device coupled to a conventional, wireline network. For instance, a terminal device, such as a portable computer, can be coupled by way of a radio link to network infrastructure of a radio communication system and, in turn, by way of a network connection to an Internet-connected, host device. The terminal device forms a wireless host to the Internet-connected host device. A physical, such as a hard-wired, link is not formed with the wireless host device. Instead, a packet channel is defined upon the radio link to permit the communication of the packets of data with the wireless host device.
Packet-switched communications advantageously permit several mobile users to share an available channel capacity. Effectuation of communication by way of packet data transmission on a shared, packet channel, is therefore a less expensive manner by which to communicate than by resort to a conventional, circuit-switched communication channel. In communications upon a circuit-switched communication channel, the channel is dedicated for communication between a single sending/receiving station pair. Also, packet-switched communications are particularly amenable for communication of data which is of a "bursty" nature, transmissible in discrete bursts.
Standards have been set forth, and channels allocated, for the communication of packet data in several cellular communication systems, such as the GPRS (generic packet data service) in the GSM (general system for mobile communications) system and the PPDC (packet PDC) in the PDC (personal digital cellular) network in Japan.
Such cellular communication systems also permit SMS (short message service) communications. SMS communications are effectuated upon control channels, also used for control signaling. SMS messages communicated to the mobile terminal are therefore the least-bandwidth costly manner by which to communicate messages to a mobile terminal.
A mobile terminal operable in such systems is operable pursuant to a service subscription. Communications with the mobile terminal are charged to the service subscription. Charges typically accrue to the service subscription for each packet-switched or circuit-switched communication with the mobile terminal. That is to say, the subscriber, typically the user of the mobile terminal, to the service subscription must pay a fee each time in which the mobile terminal is utilized either to send or to receive communications. Such charges accrue both for circuit-switched communications as well as packet-switched communications. Because SMS messages are transmitted upon a signaling channel, charges for communication of such messages are typically not separately itemized.
Because of the unilateral nature of a packet data transmission, unsolicited packets of data might be transmitted to the mobile terminal. Because a charge accrues for each communication to the mobile terminal, the service subscription might be charged for the transmission to the mobile terminal of unsolicited, or otherwise unwanted, packets of data.
A manner by which to prevent, or otherwise filter, the transmission of packets of data to the mobile terminal without the permission of the user of the mobile terminal would prevent the accrual of charges for the transmission of undesired packets of data to the mobile terminal.
It is in light of this background information related to packet data communication systems that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.